New Years Resolution: Top 3 Albums

The second instalment of my 2009 Top 3 Stuff series of writing continues today with my Top 3 Albums of 2009, as decided by what I keep going back to week after week. Unlike my selection of games, I chose to only select albums that were actually released this year, as I thought it was more important, because I could've easily just picked all Beatles albums and what not, so I figured we'd keep it current for the highest possible amount of relevance.

Music is a huge part of my everyday life… I listen to music while I'm going to work in the morning, I listen to music while I'm on my way home, while I'm at work, while I'm on the computer playing World of Warcraft, and finally, I listen to music while I lay in bed falling asleep. It is a giant part of my life, and I listen to a lot of it, so it was difficult to narrow down three choices for this top three. I tried to use what came to mind first, and tried to pick the albums that I've gone back to for months.

Number 3.
Chali 2na - Fish Outta Water (Hip Hop)

I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, more often than not, I find it difficult to relate to the lyrical content, but Chali 2na's Fish Outta Water stands out as an amazing album, featuring smart lyrics and fun songs. Some of the songs that stand out the most are International, Lock Shit Down, Don't Stop and Gun's Up (a song of revolution featuring two of the Marley brothers).

Number 2.
Thrice - Beggars (Alt. Rock)

Thrice has been around for a long time, about eleven years, but this is the first album from them that I've ever listened from start to finish, over and over again. It's slightly short, but there is such a dark, emotional feeling to the album, it's difficult to explain. You can just feel these songs, they have atmosphere and depth, and it's something you really don't hear very often - it's a beautiful album. Song of my favourite songs from the album are The Weight, Circles, Doublespeak and In Exile, and I really recommend you check this album out if you have any interest in music at all.

Number 1.
Emery - In Shallow Sea's We Sail (Post-Hardcore)

The most important album to me this year had to have been Emery's In Shallow Seas We Sail. It was a king of 'return to form' for Emery, having changed musical styles on their last album to a softer, pop-ier sound, this album opens up with an emotional, scream filled introduction to a passionate, powerful, but catchy album. My favourite song on the album is Butcher's Mouth, and other notable songs are every other freaking song on the album. It really is an awesome piece of art, and I think that most people could relate to it, and find something of value from it. I will probably continue to go back to this album year after year, and I look forward to whatever Emery does next.

Some honourable mentions for the year are Mind in a Box's Crossroads from 2007, AFI's Crash Love, Sense's Fail's Life is not a Waiting Room from 2008 and music from Pomplamoose. I also listened to Sufjan Steven more than anything at all this year, much like last year, but I mean, I can only write about him so many times.

That about wraps up my Top 3 Albums of the year, and the next in the series will be my top three TV shows of the year, so you can look forward to that.

Quick

Today I pretty much just played games with Ben... we played World of Warcraft, Modern Warfare 2's Spec Op's mode, and then had dinner, then played more World of Warcraft, all while talking on vent.

That's about it haha, kind of a lazy day, but at the same time, I did the dishes, had a nice dinner, and had fun, so there!

Tomorrow I've got to go into work, but instead of leaving for work at 10:35 to get there for a 12:00 shift (Sunday busses), I figure it's worth $14 to sleep in an extra hour and a half, not wait in the cold and take a checker. I can sleep in a bit, have a nice breakfast, and leave for work only twenty minutes before having to be there, instead of an hour and twenty.

I'm going to head to bed now, as I don't want to be too dead tomorrow... I have no idea what I'm heading in to... it could be sunday brunch and a huge wedding and all this crazyness, or it could be just brunch, nothing special, no boss, just relaxed, who knows.

I'm not sure of my days off next week, but I think I get two in a row, and I asked for next week off, so who knows if that'll happen.

Time for bed!

New Years Resolution: Top 3 Games

I mentioned previously that in the new year I would attempt to write more often - every day if possible, and I've been thinking about what I should write about, or how I could go about doing just that. I decided to kick it off by talking about my favourite things of the last year: games, movies, television, music; All of the things that had a serious impact on my life, and I'll write a bit about why I chose them, what they meant to me, and so on.

I figure I'll break it up into several parts as to not make this a novel, because no one wants to sit down and read a webpage for too long.

Today I'm going to be starting with my top three favourite games of 2009. Let me first clarify by saying that the games I've selected don't necessarily had to have come out in 2009, only that they were played the most, enjoyed the most, and so on, in 2009.

Number 3.
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox 360)

To be honest, I went into Resident Evil 5 with quite a bit of scepticism, I was worried that it wouldn't come close to living up to my expectations set by the amazing Resident Evil 4 for the Gamecube, which I played through numerous times. I had downloaded the demo, and was not impressed with the controls, or feel of gameplay, and I had followed the game through the press and podcasts, and people had mixed opinions on whether or not the game was good. The game was actually bought for me by Ben for my birthday, because we had talked about getting it to play through, since the entire game was built around the idea of playing it with a friend, basically it was a single player game built around the mechanic of it being a co-op game.

Ben and I spent the majority of the summer playing through the game. We started by beating it on the normal difficulty, followed by the hard difficulty, only to unlock the most difficult setting and playing through it on that. In fact, we played Resident Evil 5 so much, that I am only missing one achievement from the game, and to get that, I'd just have to play the last chapter one more time.

It has to be the best co-op experience available, and being able to purchase upgrades to guns, earn and spend money and see actual improvements in gameplay are really what elevated this co-op game above the rest (like say, Army of Two). It really took over my life for awhile, and I'm glad that it did. I don't think the game would be as stand-out if there was no co-op… if the game was a straight up single player experience it would probably fall a bit flat.

Number 2.
Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

Trying to think back through the year, I think that Batman: Arkham Asylum might have been the only single player game I played all the way through, from start to finish. It was not hard to do that with this game, it sucked me right in from the start, and again, I didn't really know what to expect from the game. I knew it would be cool, but I didn't realize that it would be one of the coolest games of the generation.

The game was dark, mature, smart and very immersive. The story was fun to follow, the characters were interesting, and I always wanted to keep playing a bit more. The fighting system was fun and addictive, and so was the platforming and running around on the island. Being able to grapple up places, jump up and glide around really made being in the world fun, and the collectables spread throughout the world added yet another reason to continue playing.

I'm excited to hear that they are currently working on a sequel to the game that takes place in Gotham city, so I can only expect bigger and greater things.

Number 1.
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (PC/Mac)

Yes, the game is five years old now, but it was still the game I got the most out of this year, for good and bad of course. If we think of WoW as a 'career' for a second, I went from being a no one, unemployed loser, to getting a job, going up the ranks and becoming one of the most important people in the company, to quitting, to being on welfare, to getting a good, secure job, and … well, I'll stop there. There have been many highs and lows, I've made many friends, lost touch with friends, and some very unique experiences that I've been convinced couldn't exist without WoW.

I did quit World of Warcraft for about three months this year, but for the rest of the time, I pretty much played every day, even if it was just for an hour, and that makes it a pretty significant part of my life, for good or bad. It's a culture I enjoy being a part of, and I think I have positive experiences not available to people that don't participate. I like feeling like I belong to something larger than myself.

In the future, I'm going to write an entire piece on my career in World of Warcraft, my experiences, what I've done and been a part of, and try to explain what it means to me, but that'll have to wait, because I think that would take a bit of time and planning.

World of Warcraft has been the most important game of the year for me, and it will most likely continue to be so.

So that wraps up my three favourite games of 2009, if you're reading this and have a blog of your own, I'd love to read about your three favourite games of the year, or if you don't have a blog, leave a comment with the info.

Next in the series will be my favourite albums of 2009, with write ups and information.

Until then, have a good new year.

All I want for Christmas

Around Christmas time you exchange gift ideas, desires, things you need - lists essentially - of things you'd like to receive, and that's very convenient.

However, after being somewhat dissatisfied with my own list of items, I couldn't quite figure out what was missing from it that was leading me to believe it wasn't complete. It took a few days of thinking, but to be honest, all I want for christmas is the experience of opening a gift, and it being something unexpected, insightful and something that would make me smile, without having the item under the wrapping paper been hand picked by me.

I want that feeling.

Maybe I'll add that to my list.

Whatever

I want to write every day, I do. I miss the creativity, the sense of archiving my life, and just the free flowing of thoughts. But you see, when I used to write a lot, I was unemployed, and now, I have limited time to do many things. Like, I can either write, or watch the episode of the office from this week. or write, or relax and watch a movie before bed. It's always difficult to pick writing, because I don't have an audience anymore, and since it's been so long, it's hard to care.

I'd like to make it a new years resolution, or something different, a challenge, to write everyday in January, even if it's just a sentence. I will make a point to write everyday, and see if that has any effect on my habits.

Tonight I went to Michelle's work christmas party, and ate sun-dried tomato pesto with arugula and goat cheese bruschetta, roast salmon with cherry tomatoes, potato mash and carrots, and brownies and gelato for dessert.

It was also my only day off during the week, for three weeks now I've worked six days, and it's getting really old. My lack of free time is really stressing me out, my lack of free time is preventing me from planning christmas, christmas gifts, as well as unpacking and organizing my new home, planning future improvements and plans, and so much more.

I've been watching a movie almost every night as a way to cope with my stress and depression, and it does help, as I find comfort there, but now I've almost run out of movies, so that's disappointing.

I've been longing for a programming project but have yet to come up with any compelling ideas to get me going. I had one but I'm not sure it will develop into anything. I probably don't have the time for it anyway. Ah well...

I think I'll go watch a movie, then go to bed, so I can get up early and bike to work so I can start my new set of six days in a row.

It's November already?

The most significant recent development to report is that on December 1st, I will be leaving Grey St, for a much nicer, more comfortable upstairs of a house. Lots of business lately with packing, planning, packing and a bit more planning.

So I've been balancing packing and organizing with relaxing, and it's been going well so far, as things are getting done at a quick pace, and that pleases me, as the last thing I want is to be overwhelmed at the last second. Of course, I'd really like to take this opportunity to really reduce the amount of useless junk being stored for no reason, weed out the crap, reduce the clutter, feel more free, more open, less claustrophobic. It's a great feeling to reduce the amount of "baggage" you have, so I'm trying my best to do so. While I'm packing, I try to not take anything I haven't used in a year, and then when I unpack, I'll do a second pass and throw out anything I might've changed my mind on, to really get rid of a lot of stuff. It can be hard, but it's worth it.

I guess that's all I've got for right now, more to come hopefully.

The return of...

Well hello there nobody! Yes, I've realized that due to my complete lack of writing over the last… oh, couple years, there isn't really anyone left reading anything I write, however, I'd like to believe it's a mixture of growing up, losing friends and changing interests that have lead me away from writing, but I know deep down I'm a writer, and I'll always be.

I keep myself busy as ever, often, if not always sacrificing sleep to fit in time for games, TV, movies or sometimes I just resist sleep just to be awake and delay the unavoidable. I've been working Monday to Friday, with weekends off, for about the last month, and not only is that creating loving, comfortable, warm, fuzzy routine, I feel because of this, it's creating a stability and predictability that I very much appreciate, not only at home, but the routine and predictability at work is helping me hate my job less and making me feel better about what I do. I'd describe it in detail but I'm sure that wouldn't be the most exciting reading in the world.

Naturally due to my work schedule, I've been enjoying Saturday and Sunday's off. I like the fact that, at least for now, I can plan my days off ahead of time and have something to look forward to. Mainly my weekends consist of junk food, and catching up on games.

Lately I've been attempting to save money - in general - in all areas. Not really because I "need" to but because I feel some of my spending is a bit higher in areas then it needs to be. I've been trying to focus on food costs but it's harder than it seems. To compensate for less spending, I've been trying to use up things from the freezer, and also come up with creative ways to make interesting, cheap meals. It's only been a bit less than a month since I've made an effort to reduce spending, so it's difficult to tell if it's making a difference in the bigger picture.

As always I've been playing games whenever I can. There are two games I pretty much switch between at the moment, but there are a few games I picked up recently that I've been meaning to put some time into but the previously mentioned but unmade games draw me away. Virtua Tennis 2009, Halo Wars, Project Gotham Racing 4 and Guitar Hero World Tour. Those are games I've really meant to sit down and play these but… Beatles Rock Band and World of Warcraft keep me so occupied, I just never find time.

Beatles: Rock Band is so beyond expectation, it's kept being fun day after day. I just keep going back, replaying songs, trying to improve my scores. I've been enjoying the drums the most, but that's not taking anything away from guitar or bass. I'm not much of a singer, but if there were ever songs that would make me sing, it would be Beatles songs. The game really contains an indescribable magical quality; it keeps pulling me in unlike most other games.

Near the end of May, I quit World of Warcraft cold turkey when my guild fell apart, mainly due to raid attendance. I went from spending all available waking hours playing WoW to cancelling my subscription. At the time I stopped playing, my main character was the number one ranked player on the server. During my time away from the game, I got back into console games, watching shows on TV and renting movies to watch and I felt a lot more free not living under the restrictions of a raid schedule. Months later a friend and co-worker expressed interest in trying World of Warcraft, and for some reason I said I'd refer him and show him the ropes. We played together a bit and after work as a way to relax, I'd play a lower level character and it really reminded me how comforting and it is to just sit down and play for a bit. So I've been playing again but only casually, as some would put it. I don't raid or anything and I don't play my 80's, just lower level tons, sometimes with Kyle, and sometimes with Michelle.

Just this passed weekend, I went shopping with my Mom to Futureshop and I picked up a few toys for myself. I grabbed a copy of the Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade. Installation was fast and super easy, and the upgrades, at least so far, are enjoyable. The most noticeable are a cleaner, more refined user interface, it's faster, and fixes a few application issues. It was only $30, so I consider it well worth it.

I also picked up a 120gb Xbox 360 hard drive, which came with a transfer cable to transfer all my data from my old HD, so I did just that, and now I've got tons of free space for demos, digital distributed full games, arcade games, DLC, renting movies and more. My original hard drive (a 20gb) was completely full, and I had been forced to delete things whenever I had something new to download, so now I don't have to worry about it, and you'd be surprised how much that means to me.

I also got a new mouse, as my Logitech mouse's right click was malfunctioning and causing me distress, so I grabbed a Microsoft wireless Explorer (after man-handling all the display mice). I decided to go with a new brand because I've had three or four Logitech mice in the last two or three years, and they always break the same way, so I'm pretty unhappy with that. So far I'm very, very pleased with the new mouse, as it feels great in the hand, has a rechargeable battery and is very responsive.

The largest purchase I made while out that day would have to be the Rogers HDPVR I picked up, which lets me record shows and watch them at a later time, so I'm not confined by the TV schedule. For example, House is on at 8pm, and that's way to early for me to sit down and watch a show, so I can record it and watch it at 9pm, or 10pm, or just whenever. I also ordered the movie's package from Rogers, since now that I can record TV, being able to record any movie anytime is awesome, so I can record a few, keep them on there until I'm in the mood for a movie and then delete it afterward. We get TMN HD, MPIX HD, the on demand channels, and HBO Canada now. As an added bonus to buying the PVR, it can be hooked up to the theatre system using HDMI, which compared to the previous HD box, has much improved sound. The surround sound is really nice, even just on regular TV.

Well, I could go on, but I feel like I should bring this to an end. I actually wrote the majority of this out on paper believe it or not, because I wanted to watch a movie and this was the only way I could write and watch it at the same time. I had quite a few things I wanted to touch on when I wrote my outline for what I was going to write, but I'm just not feeling it at the moment. Thanks for reading, maybe more coming soon.